Friday, February 6, 2015

Smackdown opens with MizTV as Miz makes his assistant, Damien Mizdow, sit at ringside. His guests are Roman Reigns and Daniel Bryan, who will meet at Fast Lane. Roman takes out Miz with a Superman Punch once he gets in the ring, which is exactly the Roman Reigns we should see. Not the one who cuts poorly scripted promos. Just be a legit badass. Roman cuts a short and to the point promo before saying they should do this thing right now. The set gets cleared and they may go, but Seth Rollins interrupts. He, by way of the Authority, books Daniel Bryan against J&J Security tonight. When Bryan laughs at this, he adds himself to make it a 3 on 1 handicap match. Shorter than the drawn out Raw opening segments and accomplished just as much. Great segment for Roman. After the commercial, an angry Miz is interviewed by Renee Young and challenges Roman for tonight. Goldust and Stardust open the wrestling portion against Dolph Ziggler and Ryback. They are both wearing weight belts, with Ryback's saying "The Big Guy" and Dolph's saying "The Lil Guy." Trust me, I want Dolph to be a focal point of the show, but the matching weight belts make me think this will be a tag team that lasts a while. I don't hate it though. They could be the most popular tag team in the division and maybe give it a boost. This was a solid opener, with both teams looking good. Interestingly, Dolph got the hot tag before Ryback picked up the win. The Dust Brothers continued to have problems because Goldust called his partner Cody and he walked out. I'm not sure what this will lead to, but I'm okay if it brings me back Cody Rhodes.

After another Black History Month video for Ernie Ladd, we are joined by Curtis Axel. He gets microphone time again, which isn't his strong suit. I wonder if this will go past this week. He wants to right the wrong of Royal Rumble and for the fans to join the AxelMania movement. #AxelMania was actually indeed trending last night and we know how much the WWE loves it when things trend. He's going up against Dean Ambrose and we all know how this goes. If there's anyone that Dean can actually get a win over on the roster, it's a Curtis Axel. After the match, we get video of Bad News Barrett on the Bad News Zone. It's a play off TMZ, complete with a parody logo and a ticker of bad news on the bottom. He claims that Ambrose is too much of a lunatic to get an Intercontinental Title shot. I like the BNZ idea but Barrett has done a lot of nothing since his return. In the meaningless match of the night, Fandango, with the worst dance partner possible, takes on Adam Rose. The Rosebuds fail to catch him on his trust fall. Fandango wins in just over two minutes. Is he a face now? Regardless, he's not very good and this match was pointless. The Miz is out and he's pissed. He calls out Roman and attacks him once he gets on the apron, even throwing him into the steel steps. This was interesting because on the one hand, I feel that the Miz's ability to draw consistent heat should have him higher up on the card so I was happy he wasn't destroyed. On the other hand, if we're to believe that Reigns is a threat to Brock Lesnar, he shouldn't be struggling to beat a mid-carder. Roman ends up winning in just over six minutes, but it wasn't the showcase that he should have had.We are taken to video highlights of Rusev dismantling Erick Rowan on Raw. It was another in a long line of John Cena being the worst babyface friend in WWE history. He's never around to help. Tonight is our Rusev/Rowan rematch. It isn't a rematch we were clamoring for and ends in just over three minutes. Paige and Renee Young are now in the same screen and my heart can't handle it. Paige discusses the Bellas making fun of her skin. It's a good promo as she brings up how she isn't a cookie cutter diva but she will be Divas Champion again. Is the Anti-Diva returning? Her stomach is still black from whatever the Bellas did which was still never properly explained. Just like them being buddy buddy again. Even though Alicia Fox gets the best spot of this match by tossing Paige outside hard, she gets back in and wins via the PTO. We are taken to clips of a double date between Jimmy Uso, Naomi, Tyson and Natalya. Tyson is late and shows up with Cesaro. How excellent is this? Tyson claims that he thought it was a double date like Canadian doubles tennis rules which is three players. This obviously doesn't end well and builds towards our eventual Tag Title match which should steal the show whenever it happens.

Triple H's upcoming face to face with Sting at Fast Lane is promoted before we go to a backstage Bray Wyatt promo. He calls himself the Reaper which is another hint towards a match against Undertaker. I hope we get an actual explanation for why Bray is targeting him instead of it being random. Main event time as Daniel Bryan takes on Seth Rollins and J&J Security. J&J can still do well in the ring and this was entertaining. Bryan knocks Seth out of the ring and makes Mercury tap to the YES! Lock to win. His celebration is short lived though as Kane appears to ruin everything like he does. Roman not helping Bryan in this situation makes sense because they're meeting at Fast Lane. He's not just being selfish like he was after the Shield split or the way that John Cena is every week. They beat down on Bryan and I really hope we never get another Kane/Bryan match.Overall, moving to Thursday continues to work for Smackdown. Their shows have been more focused and featured less nonsense for the most part. Daniel Bryan and Roman Reigns both had relatively important nights, Paige picked up another win, we got build for the Tag Title match, saw Ziggler and Ryback team up for the first time and enjoyed a fun show. There was the Rose/Fandango match which hurt the show badly though. 7/10.